“Yesterday,” (Friday,) said my amusing Malay informant, “I washed this bird, (the one then before us,) and gave him his physic.” He was so highly pleased at my taking an interest in his birds, that he presented me with a pair of the cream-coloured doves, which, he observed, “Would speak like a clock, every hour.”[137] The smaller species was the one, however, possessed of the preserving qualities against fire and flood. He apologized for not making me a present of it, and gave, in my opinion, the best of reasons that a married man could, which was—“_his wife would not let him part with it_.” I, however, so pleased my Malay friend, that he regretted I was about to leave Batavia so soon, as he would otherwise have shown me some more curiosities, and given me plenty of information on Javanese things, (probably, I thought, of a similar stamp to the foregoing, that is, more amusing than instructive). He brought me a dried specimen of the _Hippocampus_, carefully wrapped in paper; it was named Ecan Kudu, or horse-fish, (Ecan, signifying a fish, and Kudu, horse,) by the Malays, from its being regarded by them as an excellent medicine for horses; they place it (without being pounded, or otherwise prepared) in the water, the horses drink, and consider it an excellent tonic for them. I saw at Batavia a species of Gibbon, which is indigenous to Java, and had just been purchased, it was the _Pithecus leuciscus_, Desm., or _Simia leucisca_, Schreb. The natives call it the white ape, or Woa, woa, puteh; the fur being of a light greyish colour; face and ears, black; no tail; long arms; and a prehensile power of the feet. The _Sumpitan_, or blow-pipe, is an instrument upwards of six feet long; with which the Javanese propel small clay pellets from the mouth with such force as to kill birds and other animals; they are likewise used by the Javanese in warfare, to shoot the small poisoned arrows, (_damhák_,) which are about a foot in length, armed at one extremity with pith, and are propelled with surprising accuracy of aim. CHAPTER XIX. Leave Batavia and anchor off Hoorn Island—Islands about the Bengal Passage—Gingiong roads—Lofty aspect of the land—The coast—The golden mountain—Island of Sumatra—Aspect of the country—The lover’s leap—Village of Pedir—Ships of the Acheenese Rajah—Visit to the Rajah—Dense vegetation—Buffaloes—Ba Assan trees—Hall of reception—Interview with his Highness—Commercial negociations—Curiosity of the natives—The Areka or Betel-nut—Flowering shrubs and plants—Rice-planting—Return to the ship—A prohibition.